L'Écho du Sud

L'Écho du Sud (French pronunciation: [leko dy syd]) is a French weekly newspaper founded in 1929 by Louis Cambrézy.^[4] It was bought in 2022 by the Ferber Group, which used it to implement deceptive marketing practices, ranging from unreported advertising to extortion attempts.

L'Écho du Sud

Front page of 11 January 1930
Type	Weekly newspaper
Owner(s)	Ferber Enterprises[1][2]
Founder(s)	Louis Cambrézy
Founded	13 April 1929; 96 years ago (1929-04-13)
Political alignment	Centre-right[3] French colonialism[3] Anti-communism[3]
Language	French
Country	Madagascar
Website	lechodusud.com
Media of Madagascar List of newspapers

History

Page of L'Écho du Sud, 9 March 1935

On 13 April 1929,^[5] Louis Cambrézy, a French settler,^[6] founded the newspaper L'Écho du Sud: organe des intérêts généraux du Sud de Madagascar, in Fianarantsoa.^[7] Its goal was initially to maintain an active newspaper following the disappearance the previous year of La Voix du Sud, another newspaper founded in Fianarantsoa by Jules Thibier.

Its head office is located on Avenue Clémenceau, in Fianarantsoa, and it is printed by the Imprimerie du Betsileo. It is distributed at a price of 0.40 francs.^[7]

The newspaper appears every Saturday and deals with general information in Madagascar.^[7]

It is thanks to this newspaper that Louis Cambrézy was awarded the Legion of Honour in 1935, by Louis Rollin, Minister of the Colonies.^[8]

Logo

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  Logo during the 1920s
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  Logo during the 1940s
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  Logo today

Editorial stance

The newspaper is openly in favor of colonialism and the maintenance of France in Africa, its founder having himself taken part in the Second Madagascar expedition. From 1936, he sided with the Spanish Republicans who were victims of the Francoists. During the Second World War, the newspaper took a stand against Vichy France,^[3] which persecuted its founder Louis Cambrézy^[9] for his membership in Freemasonry.^[10]

Takeover by Ferber group

It is bought in 2022 by Ferber Enterprises (mg), a holding that uses it to blackmail its customers victims of the deceptive practices of its subsidiaries,^[11] by publishing defamatory articles focused on customers who have posted negative reviews of their experience with Ferber Enterprises, the deletion of which is explicitly promised upon deletion of said negative reviews. Thus, in 2023, L'Écho du Sud is at the heart of a controversy after publishing a defamatory article against a client of Ferber Painting, a company of the Ferber group. This client testifies to being blackmailed after publishing a negative review on Ferber Painting, and that she would have been offered to delete this article if she agreed to delete her negative review. Similar articles have also been published.^{[12][13][14][15]}